Yogic philosophy teaches that we think, speak, and act in a non-harmful way. In Sanskrit it is called (Ahimsa). I've learned that what seems harmless to me can cause hurt, stress, and anxiety in others. Because I grew up in a house that used humor to deal with difficult things, I have found myself laughing at the absurdity of a situation, while those around me see nothing funny about it. I don’t think it’s funny either, that’s why I’m laughing. What saves me in those situations is my ability to read body language, and energy in the room, to quickly pivot. But when texting, without body language cues, I run into problems. This is where emojis come in handy, and there are plenty to choose from.
According to Emojipedia, Emoji Statistics, there are presently 3,790 emojis in the emoji Unicode standard. Unicode is a non-profit organization that creates code for each emoji ensuring they look the same across different devices. This way, if I send a thumbs up emoji from my I-phone to a Samsung, it will translate into the same intended thumbs up symbol. Personally, I use pink hearts, happy face, sad face, mad face, birthday cake, hat, and ballons. I also use the “Tears of Joy emoji,” which, in 2015, became the first image to become word of the year. Pink hearts are my “Just in case you thought I was saying something insensitive” emoji. When I end a text with pink hearts, it clears up any misunderstanding. Without the hearts, if a friend tells me good news, texting back “Great” can be translated as sarcasm. Like “good for you. Aren’t you wonderful” accompanied by an eye roll. The pink hearts remove the eye roll and sarcasm.
The article “Emoji Don’t Mean What They Used To,” points out that the new emojis are illustrative, (when concrete pictures are used, like a house), than ideographic (when pictures are used to represents an idea of something universal, like a heart or a happy face). The illustrative emojis have blossomed because there was a need for more skin tones. While the introduction of different skin tones is a positive move toward inclusivity, it's impossible to represent every variation, so some people will inevitably be left out. Ideographic emojis, like the smiley face or a house, work universally because they represent simple, shared ideas.
The effort to include all skin tones and hair styles is one that I hope continues to evolve. When it comes to objects, diversity is not as important. Is every make and model car and truck necessary? Do we need every type of apple in the world on our emoji pallet? Some things just matter more than others. Human Inclusivity is one of them.
What one person finds acceptable, another may find hurtful. Emojis have the power to soften the unintentional harm that can be done in text conversations. We have the power to continue to grow emojis so all people can find themselves represented when communicating with images. Any time we work towards inclusivity, we are practicing the yogic principle, Ahimsa (doing no harm). Although I am happy more people can find emojis that represent them, through illustrative emojis, I will be sticking with my ideographic emojis, because if I go down that rabbit hall of illustrative emojis, the only sun I will wind up seeing is the emoji sun, and we all need a little sunshine and vitamin D.
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